Jim Bishop's glorious San Diego garden

The one private garden I managed to visit during our January trip to San Diego was that of Jim Bishop and his partner Scott Borden. I was briefly on the Pacific Horticulture board of directors with Scott, but hadn't met Jim until he attended the Puget Sound Fling last summer. Jim blogs at My Life With Plants.

I pulled up in front of their home as the sun was hitting the plants and setting everything a glow.

Jim did his best to pull me along (aware the light was going to fade further into the garden), but I managed to snap a few photos as we went. Honestly I would have been thrilled if this was all I saw, but there was oh so much more to see...

What a striking dyckia!

Mangave some-somebody

Agave victoriae-reginae, grown from seed!

We're on the other side of the front wall now (the wall shown in the top photo), in a sweet courtyard space. Jim and Scott's home dates to the 1930's and sits atop hillside in the Mission Hills neighborhood of San Diego.

So many tillandsia!

Here we've walked thru the home and are looking down on the fist part of the garden, a terrace off the back of the house.

Standing on that terrace now...

And admiring a fabulous selection of potted agaves and other succulents.

Jim is the plant person behind the garden, and his plant passions are wide and varied. That said, he has a handsome collection of bromeliads and agaves that had me swooning!

So nice of this epiphyllum to bloom during my visit.

Ditto for this leucadendron, perhaps L. gandogeri?

If you've not toured or read about Jim's garden (Gerhard did a fabulous write-up) the most important things for you to know are:

1. It is on a very steep hillside, according to Gerhard's post the garden drops 100 feet (the equivalent of 10 stories) from the home level to the bottom of the garden. 
2. None of what you'll see in this post was here when Jim and Scott bought the property in the late 1990's. No desirable plants, no irrigation. There was however plenty of overgrown vegetation and junk to haul away.
3. All the steps and creative hardscaping was done by Jim with help from Scott and a few friends, it's all very impressive!

Let's go! (I'm going to keep the comments to a minimum so you can just soak up the beauty)

Agave attenuata 'Ray of Light'

Since I was there in January most of the aloes were in bloom. Jim knew the names of the plants (not just the aloes) and shared them with me as we toured. Since we cannot grow aloes in Portland (with just a couple exceptions) I know very little about them, and the names did not stick. Of course that didn't keep me from appreciating them.

THIS! Wowsa. Grevillea ‘Austraflora Fanfare’ looking fantastic (even though my photo is blurry).

Bottles and pebbles and terracotta tiles, everything is fair game in Jim's hardscaping artistry.

Hakea laurina

Colorful garden art from repurposed and painted chain-link fence parts.

We've made it down to the bottom of the garden now. As you'll see in the next few images the plants at the bottom of the garden are magic when backlit by the sun, but the show is over quickly, especially in January. Banksia...

Protea

This is the best I did at getting a shot of the entire hillside, it doesn't really convey the drop from top to bottom.

The plants, the hardscape... it was hard to know what to focus on!

Agave bracteosa 'Monterrey Frost'

Aloidendron 'Hercules', given pride of place.

Climbing back up the hillside...

And we're almost back up at house level.

Solandra maxima - Cup of Gold vine

And another tile fountain...

After saying goodbye to Jim and Scott I went to pick up Andrew at a nearby bookstore, the poor guy didn't know what hit him. I was high on garden beauty endorphins! Thanks for spending your afternoon touring me around your garden Jim, what a paradise!

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